Towards an Online Serious Game
Providing a Joyful Experience in
Learning Art History
Josef Froschauer, Max Arends, Doron Goldfarb, Dieter Merkl
Vienna University of Technology
Electronic Commerce Group
Institute for Software Technology and Interactive Systems
Vienna University of Technology
Favoritenstraße 9-11/188-1 . 1040 Vienna . Austria/Europe
Tel.: +43 (1) 58801 - 18822, Fax: +43 (1) 58801 - 18896
http://www.ec.tuwien.ac.at
Outline

Motivation
 What is ThIATRO?
 Making of...
 Gameplay Demo
 Challenges
 Conclusion and Future Work
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Motivation

Art historical facts are often tedious to communicate.

... but they can play an important part in raising one‘s
interest in contemporary culture and cultural heritage.

Huge interest in Serious Games and Gamification

Our research question: Does Serious Gaming awake
interest in the field of cultural heritage?
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What is ThIATRO
 Online game that aims at raising the interest in art
history, contemporary culture and cultural heritage.
 Helps students learn art history
 Make the communication of art historical facts an
entertaining experience.
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Game-Based Learning

Follows a constructivist perspective
Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted to the user.
Learner plays an active role in the learning process.

Highly motivating
increases the motivation and compels the player to think
about, organize and use information
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What is it about?

Player slips into the role of a museums curator

In every level, a special exhibition has to be arranged.

Player has to collect paintings from different virtual
museums to fulfill a specific task.

Data: Web Gallery of Art (www.wga.hu), 18.000 works
from 1100 to 1850
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Learning Content
Genres (Tutorial)
Iconography
Famous Topics in Art
Perspective
Eras of Art
Lighting and Shading
Specific Artist (Caravaggio)
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Making of...
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Making of...
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Making of...
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Making of...
Unity Game Development Tool
+
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www.thiatro.info
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Challanges

Loading Times

Dynamic Content Creation

Real size of paintings

Multiplayer
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Future Work

Multiplayer
 Evaluation (already carried out)
 Control group (classroom teaching)
 Experimental group (playing ThIATRO)
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Thank You, ευχαριστώ
Josef Froschauer
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://vsem.ec.tuwien.ac.at/
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